Vietnam: Design Registration In Vietnam

TYPES OF DESIGNS:

Industrial Design: An industrial design means
a specific appearance of a product embodied by three-dimensional
configurations, lines, colors, or a combination of these
elements.

Layout-Design:A layout-design of
semiconductor integrated circuit (hereinafter referred to as
layout-design) means a three-dimensional disposition of circuit
elements and their interconnections in a Semi-conductor integrated
circuit.

PROCEDURE FOR DESIGN
REGISTRATION:

Step 1: Filing:

Who may apply: Article 86 and 89:

Authors who have created inventions with their own efforts and
expenses

Organizations or individuals who have supplied funds and
material facilities to authors in the form of job assignment or
hiring unless otherwise agreed by the involved parties.

Foreign nationals residing permanently

Foreign organizations having a production or trading
establishment

Non-resident foreign nationals or organizations not having a
production or trading establishment shall apply through a lawful
representative.

Documents required: Section 100

Declaration for registration in the prescribed form

Documents, samples and information identifying the
invention

Power of attorney (if applied through representative)

Documents evidencing the registration right if such right is
acquired by another person

Documents evidencing the priority right, if it is claimed

Vouchers of payment of fees and charges

A copy of the first application certified by the registration
office

Requirements of application:

Documents identifying an industrial design registered for
protection

Description and a set of photos or drawings of such industrial
design.

The description must consist of a section of description and a
scope of protection of such industrial design.

The section of description of an industrial design must satisfy
the following conditions:

Fully disclosing all features expressing the nature of the
industrial design and clearly identifying features which are new,
different from the least different known industrial design, and
consistent with the set of photos or drawings.

Where the industrial design registration application consists
of variants, the section of description must fully show these
variants and clearly identify distinctions between the principal
variant and other variants.

Where the industrial design stated in the registration
application is that of a set of products, the section of
description must fully show features of each product of the
set.

The scope of protection must clearly define features which need
to be protected, including features which are new and different
from similar known industrial designs.

The set of photos and drawings must fully define features of
the industrial design.

Filing Date: Article 108:

All applications shall be received by the State administrative
authority.

The filing date shall be the one on which the application is
received by the state administrative authority.

First to file: Article 90:

Where two or more applications are filed by several people to
register industrial designs identical with or insignificantly
different from each other, protection may only be granted to the
valid application with the earliest date of priority or filing date
among the applications that satisfy all the requirements.

Filing fees:

Filed in paper form without digital database of the whole
content of the application: 180 thousand VND.

Filed in paper form with digital database of the whole content
of the application: 150 thousand VND.

Filed online: 100 thousand VND.

Step 2: Examination:

The application shall be examined within 1 month from the
filing date (Article 119).

Formal Examination: Article 109:

To verify the formal validity of the application, an
examination process shall be conducted.

Substantive Examination: Article 119:

6 months from the date of publication of the application. If a
request for substantive examination is filed before the date of
application publication, or from the date of receipt of a request
for substantive examination if such request is filed after the date
of application publication

Invalidity in the following circumstances:

The applicant does not fulfil the requirements of
formality;

The subject matter of the application is not eligible for
protection;

The applicant does not have the right to registration;

The application was filed in contrary to the mode of
filing;

The applicant fails to pay the fees and charges.

Step 3: Acceptance/ Refusal:

The application for registration may be accepted with or
without amendments.

Until the notice of refusal by the State administrative
authority, the applicant shall have the following rights:

To make amendment or supplement to the application;

To divide the application;

To request for recording changes in name or address of the
applicant;

To request for recording changes in the applicant as a result
of assignment under the contract, as a result of inheritance,
bequest, or under a decision of an authority;

Any amendment or supplement to an industrial property
registration application must not expand the scope of the subject
matter disclosed or specified in the application and must not
change the substance of the subject matter claimed for registration
in the application and shall ensure the unity of the
application.

The subject matter claimed in the application does not fulfil
the protection requirements;

The application satisfies all the conditions for the issue of a
protection title but is not the application with the earliest
filing date or priority date as in the case referred to in Article
90.1 of this Law.

The application falls within the cases referred to in Article
90.1 of this Law but a consensus of all the applicants is not
reached.

The State administrative authority shall serve a notice of an
intended refusal to grant a Protection Title, in which the reasons
are clearly stated with a set time limit for the applicant to
oppose to such intended refusal.

The State administrative authority shall serve a notice of the
refusal to grant a Protection Title if the applicant has no
objection or has unjustifiable objection to such intended
refusal.

Step 4: Publication:

Article 110: An industrial property registration application
which has been accepted as being valid by the State administrative
authority shall be published in the Industrial Property Official
Gazette.

An industrial design registration application shall be
published within 2 months as from the filing date or the priority
date, as applicable, or at an earlier time at the request of the
applicant.

Principal information on a layout-design registration
application and the protection title for a layout design shall be
published within 2 months as from the grant date of such protection
title.

Step 5: Protection Title:

Article 93 stipulates the validity
of the protection titles:

It is valid throughout the
territory of Vietnam.

The registration of Designs shall
be valid up to 5 years from the date of filing. Their validity
commences on the date of grant of protection. It may be renewed for
two consecutive terms of 5 years each.

Certificates of registered
semiconductor integrated circuit layout-designs shall each have a
validity starting from the grant date and expiring at the earliest
date among the following:

The end of 10 years after the
filing date.

The end of 10 years after the date
the layout-designs were first commercially exploited anywhere in
the world by persons having the registration right or their
licensees.

The end of 15 years after the date
of creation of the layout-designs.

Rights accruing after
registration: Article 122 and 123:

Moral Rights:

To be named as authors in
industrial designs or layout designs.

To be acknowledged as authors in
documents in which industrial designs or layout designs are
published or introduced.

Economic rights:

Owners of industrial designs or
layout designs are obliged to pay remuneration to their authors,
unless otherwise agreed by the parties.

Minimum level of
remuneration:

10% of the profit amount gained
from the use of industrial designs or layout designs.

15% of the total amount received
by the owner in each payment for licensing of an industrial design
or layout design.

To use or permit others to use the
industrial property object in accordance with Article 124 and
Chapter X of the law (Transfer of rights: Assignment and
Licensing):

Use of an industrial design means
the performance of the following acts:

The Patents Act 1970, along with the Patents Rules 1972, came into force on 20th April 1972, replacing the Indian Patents and Designs Act 1911. The Patents Act was largely based on the recommendations of the Ayyangar Committee Report headed by Justice N. Rajagopala Ayyangar. One of the recommendations was the allowance of only process patents with regard to inventions relating to drugs, medicines, food and chemicals.

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